NewsAgent for Libraries

Notes on the use of Dublin Core

NewsAgent 


These notes relate primarily to the usage of the Dublin Metadata Core Element Set (DC) by the NewsAgent eLib project - more specifically they relate to the embedding of DC in Web pages by content providers (e.g. publishers). Where content is delivered to NewsAgent in alternate formats (e.g. e-mail) a sub-set of the list of the metadata attributes that follows will be generated based on object content.

  1. DC specification is still undergoing modification at time of writing (97-98).
  2. Further information about the Dublin Core is available from:
    <URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/resources/dc.html>
  3. NewsAgent attributes have been mapped onto the Dublin Core element set. Where no mapping is possible, NewsAgent specific META tags will be used. Additional attributes will also be used internally, e.g. to hold copyright information.
  4. Proposed usage of elements follows. In each case, where it is proposed to make use of an element, an example of the current method of embedding DC in HTML is given - but see 1) above, this syntax is subject to potential change.

  5. A full example of embedded DC for NewsAgent follows:
    <META NAME="DC.Title" CONTENT="BORGES: Lessons Learned from Developing and Delivering the BORGES Information Filtering Tool">
    
    <META NAME="DC.Subject" CONTENT="BORGES, Information Filtering, Web, WWW, USENET">
    
    <META NAME="NewsAgent.Topic" CONTENT="Research, Information Retrieval Systems">
    
    <META NAME="DC.Description" CONTENT="Alan Smeaton describes an information filtering service for Web pages and USENET news">
    
    <META NAME="NewsAgent.Contact" CONTENT="John Kirriemuir">
    <META NAME="NewsAgent.Contact.Email" CONTENT="lisjwk@ukoln.ac.uk">
    <META NAME="NewsAgent.Contact.HomePage" CONTENT="http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/~lisjwk/">
    
    <META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Alan Smeaton">
    <META NAME="DC.Creator.Address" CONTENT="a.smeaton@somewhere.ac.uk">
    
    <META NAME="NewsAgent.Date.ValidTo" CONTENT="1997-01-31">
    
    <META NAME="DC.Type" CONTENT="Text.article">
    
    <META NAME="DC.Format" CONTENT="text/html">
    
    <META NAME="DC.Identifier" CONTENT="http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/new/borges/">
    
    <META NAME="NewsAgent.Coverage" CONTENT="Europe">
    
    <META NAME="DC.Language" CONTENT="en-uk">
    
  6. A fairly minimal (and more realistic :-) ) example follows:

    <META NAME="DC.Title" CONTENT="BORGES: Lessons Learned from Developing and Delivering the BORGES Information Filtering Tool">
    <META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Alan Smeaton">
    <META NAME="DC.Subject" CONTENT="BORGES, Information Filtering, Web, WWW, USENET">
    <META NAME="NewsAgent.Topic" CONTENT="Research, Information Retrieval Systems">
    <META NAME="DC.Identifier" CONTENT="http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/new/borges/">
    

    Note that even in this example the DC.Subject META tag could be missed out.

  7. The Dublin Core qualifiers in the above are all taken from
    <URL:http://www.loc.gov/marc/dcqualif.html>
  8. A list of editorial labels could be taken from the list of Dublin Core Types at
    <URL:http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Metadata/types.html>


    Page maintained by: Andy Powell, UKOLN
    Status: Working draft
    Last updated: 16-Feb-1998